Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-07
1 FASTENED to the door with the intention


to attempt TO find my way home in the
darkness would be sheer madness, so, after
| wistful survey. returned to my perch
l thought l would try and light fire, but
| TO my CONSERVATION | had not a match
| and finally abandoned myself to my fate
II was desolate, if not despairing. feeling
that l experienced. My mind was filed,
not only with my own unhappiness, but
with the thought of the distress my absence
| would occasion them at home and for a
| little while | had fleeing hope that
party would be sent out to search for me-
This, however, was untenable, for they
would not know where l was. The last
place in which they would ever think of
| looking for me was No Haid Pawn, and
even if they knew l was there they could
no more get to me in the darkness and the
storm than could escape from it.
accordingly propped myself up on my
bed and gave myself upto my reflections.
| said my prayers very fervently. thought
| would try and get to sleep, but sleep was
| far from my eyes.
! My surroundings were too vivid to my
apprehension. The awful traditions of the
place, do what / might to Danish them.
| would come to- my mind. The original
building of the house, and its blood-staned
! foundation stones the dead who had died
of the pestiIence that had ragged afterward
| the bodies carried by scores and buried in
| the sobby earth of the graveyard, whose
trees doomed up through the broken win
dow; the dreadful story of the dead pad
| ding about the swamp in their collins
and, above ALL the gigantic maniac whose
ferocity even murder could not satiate, and
! who had added to murder awful mutils-
| ton he had dragged the mangled corpse
| of his victim up these very steps and flung
it out of the very window which CAPPED lust
beyond me in the glare of the lightning.
1t all passed through my mind as sat there
in the darkness, and no effort of my will
could keep my thoughts from dwelling on
it. The terrific murder, outcrashing a
| thousand batteries, at times engrossed
my attention but it always reverted
to that scene of horror; and if dozed, the
| slammingo of the loose blinds or the terrific
| Jury of the storm would suddenly startle
| me. Once, as the sounds subsidized for a
moment, or else having become familiar
with them, as | was sinking into a sleepy
state. door at the other end of the hall
creaked and then slammed with violence
bringing me bolt upright on the bed
clutching my gun. | could have sworn
that | heard footsteps; but the wind was
| blowing a hurricane, and after another
period of wakefulness and dreadful recol-
lection, nature succumbed, and / fell
| asleep.
| | do not know that / can be said to have
lost consciousness even then, for my mind
was still exclaimed by the horrors of my
| situation, and went on clinging to them
and dwelling upon them even in my SUM
| Der.
| [ was, however, certainly asleep, for the
storm must have died temporarily away
about this hour without my knowing it, and
| subsequently heard that it did.
must have slept several hours, for was
quite stiff from my constrained position
when l became fully aroused.
| i was awakened by very peculiar sound;
it was like q distant call or halloo. AL
! though had been fast asleep moment
| before it startled ME into a state of the
highest attention. In q second / was wide
awake. There was not a sound except the
rumble and roll of the thunder as the storm
once more began to renew itself, and in the
segment of the circle that / could see along
the hall through my door, and indeed out
| through the yawning window at the end,
as far as the black clump OF trees in the
graveyard just at the bend of the canal,
which | commanded from my seat, when
ever there was a flash of lightning, there
| was only the swaying Of the bushes in the
| swamp and of the trees in the graveyard.
Yet there | sat bolt upright on my bed, in
| the darkness, with every nerve strained to
its utmost tension, and that unearthly cry
still sounding in my ears. | was endeavor-
ing to reason myself into the belief that
| had dreamed it, when a flash of lightning
lit up the whole field of my vision as if it
had been in the focus of a sun-glass, and
out on the canal where it curved around
| the graveyard was a boat-small, black,
| with square ends, and with a man in it,
standing upright, and something lying in a
| lump or mass at the bow.
| knew | could not be mistaken, for the
| lightning by process of its own photo
graphs everything on the retina in minutest
detail, and | had vivid impression of
everything from the foot of the bed where
| crouched to the gaunt arms of those black
trees in the graveyard just over that ghostly
boatman and his dreadful freight. / was
wide awake. The story of the dead row.
ing in their collins was verified
| am unable to state what passed in the
next few minutes.
The storm had burst again with renewed
violence and was once more expanding
itself on the house; the thunder was again
rolling overhead the broken blinds were
swinging and slamming madly; and the
dreadful memories of the place were once
more beSetting me.
| ] shifted my position to relieve the cramp
| it had occasioned, still keeping my face to-
ward that fatal window. As ! did SO |
heard above, or perhaps | should say
| under, the storm a sound more terrible to
me-the repetition Of that weird halloo,
| this time almost under the great window.
| Immediately succeeding this was the sound
of something scraping under the wall, and
| was sensible when door on the ground
| floor was struck with heavy thud. 1t was
pitch dark, but l heard the door pushed
wide open, and as string of fierce oaths,
| part English and part Creole French,
| iioated up the dark stairway. muffied as if
sworn through clinched teeth, held my
| breath. | recalled the unknown togue the
| ghostly murderer employed; and | knew
! that the murderer of No Had Pawn had
left his grave, and that his ghost was COM
ing I'D that stair. heard his step as it fell
on the first stair heavily, yet almost noise
lessly. 1t was an unearthly sound-dull,
| like the tread of barred food, accompanied
| by the scraping sound of Il body dragging.
| Step by step ne came up the black stairway
| in the pitch darkness as steadily as If it
were daytime-and he knew every step
accompanied by that sickening sound of
dragging. There was a final pull up the
| last step, and dull, heavy thud, as with
strange wild laugh he flung his burden on
the floor.
For moment there was not a sound, and
then the awful silence and blackness were
broken by crash of thunder that seemed
10 tear the foundations asunder like
mighty earthquake, and the whole house
and the great swamp outside were filled
with glare of vivid, binding light. Di-
rectly in front of me, clutching in his up
raised hand a long, keen, glittering knife,
on whose blade ball of fire seemed to play
stood gigantic figure in the very flame
of the lightning, and stretched at his feet
lay, CHASTITY and bloody. black and head
less trunk.
l staggered to the door, and, tripping, fell
PROSTATE over the sill.
When we could get there nothing was
left but the foundation. The haunted
house when struck had literally burned to
the waters edge. The changed current had
washed its way close to the place. and, in
strange yerifcation of the negroes tradi-
ton, No Haid Pawn had reclaimed its own,
and the spot, with all its secrets, lay buried
under its dark waters.-T. ". Page, in
Scribner's.
A Lucky 3Ian.
A lucky man is rarer than white
| oavs Iuvapal out tbinI he